Nineteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper explores the significant impact that the capitalist colonial enterprise had on the development of ideas about people in the colonies and their visible differences. These differences served as the visual basis for an argument for the superiority of European whites. European powers were thus able to convince their populations that the exploitation of African resources and people to support industrial revolution and growth was within their rights. This “Civilizing Mission” would remain in the imaginary of Western European society for centuries and function as a continued impetus for discrimination. Through the examples laid out in Emile Zola’s writings, particularly those that deal with nineteenth-century capitalist exploits and colonial enterprise, we can observe how ethnocentric selfishness led to an invention and proliferation of racial characteristics. Although fictional literature, Zola’s works were highly popular at the time, regularly published in serial in the press. This allowed his ideas, and other authors’ ideas, to have a widespread impact on the public, thus concretizing racialized conceptions of people of color from the colonies.